Rayman was the first platform star of the 32-Bit era.  Ubi Soft was quick to launch this little guy unto the world of Atari Jaguar, then later Playstation and Saturn.  Sadly Rayman never made it to the 3DO console- though it would have surely been quite cool if it did.  Rayman was the first 2D side scrolling action platform mascot of the new era.  The era that was to put Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog on notice that their time was up (it wasn’t but we still got some great games).  Ubi Soft positioned Rayman as the leader of this charge.  Recently it was revealed by the creator of Rayman that this seminal mascot was at least in the early stages of invading the Super Nintendo world.

Since Rayman was set to be THE mascot of the new era it is interesting to see that Ubi Soft was planning a 16-Bit version like this.  Other than the Atari Jaguar version, this Super Nintendo game would have been the only other version on a cartridge.  I know, big deal.  For some of us we prefer our gaming media to not look like giant coasters.

As you can see in the Instagram photos this was apparently planned to be at least a PAL release (the UK area).  The first pic (here) is of the PAL Super Nintendo with a development cartridge inserted.  The second pic (here) shows one screen of the actual game.  Notice anything “weird”?

This is obviously an early build of what would later become Rayman so this could also be a build BEFORE it was deemed 32-Bit only.  That makes this build quite interesting as it is uniquely different from what we actually got on the Sony Playstation, Sega Saturn and Atari Jaguar.

Who is excited for this discovery?

Source: Michel Ancel’s Instagram

Carl Williams

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